In general, a rigid pack of the type in question is fabricated from a precreased flat diecut blank and comprises a container, also a lid hinged to a rear edge of the selfsame container and rotatable thus about a hinge line between positions in which one open end of the container is open and closed, and a reinforcing frame disposed partly inside the container, anchored to the front and two flank faces, of which the function is typically to retain the lid correctly in the closed position.
Such packs comprise an outer wrapper fashioned from the aforementioned flat blank and containing a group of cigarettes enveloped by an inner wrapper made customarily of metal foil paper. The packer machines used currently to manufacture packets of cigarettes are designed to fold the outer wrapper closely about the inner wrapper, thus producing an packet of substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape which is rendered extremely compact, with the result that any relative movement between the outer and inner wrappers and the cigarettes of the group is prevented. Conversely, this packaging solution betrays the drawback that the smoker, having opened the packet, has difficulty in removing the first few cigarettes of the group.
Moreover, once the hinged lid has been opened for the first time and removed thus from a position in which its edges were faultlessly aligned and in contact with the corresponding edges afforded by the open end of the container, it is difficult for this position to be regained when the lid is closed again, and the edges of the container and the lid remain distanced marginally from one another.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks described above.